Joe Dirt - Miracle Dog

Continued from the March 2012 holistic email newsletter

So I pulled Joe out from under a chair and got us into my car as quickly as I could, so that I could burst into tears and then the strangest thing happened - as I sat in my car, sobbing in that Sugarland parking lot, I got the very strong feeling that Joe was going to be fine. That he was going to be healed, in fact. Of course, this "information" was so contrary to everything I had been told by the veterinary specialist, and also to what I could see with my own eyes (poor Joe getting progressively worse), that I certainly was not going to share that feeling with anyone else! Still, the feeling had been strong, and I kept it in mind.

My husband, Dan, is a cardiovascular surgeon. He brought Joe's MRI to a radiologist friend of his at one of the hospitals near The Woodlands, and after looking at the film, this doctor also said that the prognosis was grim due to the brain stem involvement. Like, nothing you can do kind of grim. So, I spent hours on google researching alternative treatments for glioblastomas. I found Dr. Johanna Budwig, a German biochemist born in 1908 ,nominated for the Nobel prize seven times. She developed a protocol of cottage cheese blended with flaxseed oil for her patients with cancer, as a way of healing the cells in the body. I read the book Anti-Cancer, by David Servan-Schreiber MD PhD, who lived for twenty years after a brain cancer diagnosis considered terminal at the time it was discovered. We added turmeric to the flaxseed oil mixture. I bought bottles of Essiac Tea and poured this on his food twice a day. An Olivine customer told me about a Houston holistic veternarian named Dr. Happy Babish, so I called her, and she advised me to take Joe to Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists for acupuncture, which she said would help him feel more comfortable. So our vet here in The Woodlands, Dr. Janet Ho, gave Joe a referral for the acupuncture.

Joe's MRI had preceded us, and as we sat in the waiting room, Joe under my chair, a vet came in to talk to me. "I know there is nothing you can do", I told her. "We are just here for acupuncture". To my amazement, she then told me that they believed they could help Joe by giving him a series of 15 specific targeted radiation treatments, and that this would give us about 7 more months with him! I called my husband, who then talked to Dr. Glenn King, the Head Honcho over at Gulf Coast, and we decided to go for it. One of the vets then told me that I needed to know that from then on, I would be cooking for Joe. No commercial dog food for Joe, organic or not. So, from that time on, we have been cooking for ALL of our dogs (7 of them)and we find it quite easy and gratifying. An aside, their bloodwork impresses our local vets when they go in for their annual exams! Woo Hoo!

Anyway, Joe had completed about two weeks of treatment, and I received a phone call from one of my best friends, noted animal communicator Sonya Fitzpatrick. As Joe's radiation and steroid treatments continued, Sonya picked up on Joe's extreme depression and sadness. He didn't understand why Dan and I were "torturing" him, she said. He knew he was dying, and he wanted to just please be allowed to die at home. Well, Dan and I were devastated that our dog was in such emotional pain. We also did have some ambivalence ourselves about a radiation procedure every day for three weeks, with a questionable outcome. Joe had one more week of radiation, and I picked up the phone and canceled the next treatment, which since Sonya had called me on a Friday, was for Monday. On Saturday I was resolute. On Sunday I felt a little less so. On Monday every cell in my body was screaming "Take Joe back!"

As I was drying my hair that Monday morning, I was filled with conflicting emotions. And then clearly, I felt my (deceased) mother say, "Take him back, honey". I responded, "Then, Mama, please give me a sign that Joe wants to go back!" And, for the first and only time ever, Joe came walking into the bathroom, looked at me, then walked back out. Wow. I finished my hair, then went to get Joe from his favorite hiding place, under my bed. Only he wasn't there. I looked in the closet, behind chairs, in corners....not there. Well, guess what! Joe was sitting next to the front door! Talk about a SIGN!

At Gulf Coast, I literally ran into Joe's oncologist on the stairs, and I told her that due to Joe's sadness and depression, we had almost terminated his treatment. The doctor explained that the tumor itself would cause depression, as well as the heavy doses of steroids Joe was taking. She said that all cancer treatments were difficult, and that this last week was so important because it would reduce the inflammation in Joe's brain. She said that, as in so many uncomfortable treatments, someone would have to be "The Adult", and it wasn't Joe. This veternarian thought very highly of Kim Shotola, whom I had read about in Houston's Pet Talk magazine, so I decided to give Kim a call about other ways to help Joe. Kim was kind enough to come out to my house and do muscle testing on Joe, through me. Kim told me to avoid the color red and to use blue, so off went Joe's red collar! She said Reiki would be very beneficial for Joe. She talked to Joe and felt that he was a fighter and would respond well to the healing of Reiki. Kim showed me how to sense and feel energies, and taught me how to do the Reiki energy healing on Joe (or anyone ),myself. But I have a long history going to others for help when I need it, especially when I am an emotional wreck, so I asked my friend Kristin Strachan, of ReikiSpirit in Denver, to work on Joe, as well as I did do it for Joe myself. During the time that Kristin told me she was sending healing energy Joe's way, my housekeeper and I noticed that he was OUT OF IT.....a dead weight on the floor.....almost comatose! When I did it, I could plainly feel the areas of his body that radiated heat, and then found that holding my hands over these areas for a few minutes would result in a lovely coolness instead of being hot. Anyway, time has gone on. It has been over three years since Joe has finished his treatment at Gulf Coast. Kristin sends him loving energy every day. His photo lies in the hands of the beautiful Blessed Mother Mary statue that stands sweetly in my bedroom and I pat her head and tell her "Thank You!" at least once a day! For this brings me back to that day in Sugarland, with a terminal and bleak diagnosis for my blind and unsteady dog, and yet, the strong feeling that Joe would be healed. And he is! Helen Stroud

Special Note: We used to teach and offer Reiki and since then have discovered the newer energy,
Shamballa.
It is from the SAME origin as Reiki, but because it is more recent, we feel the benefits and effects are even greater than Reiki.

Blessings!Kim

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